Capsule CRM vs Clay

Looking for a new CRM? Capsule CRM and Clay are two popular options, each offering distinct features tailored to different business needs. Whether you prioritize user-friendly interfaces or advanced automation, understanding the key differences between these platforms is crucial. In this blog post, we'll explore both their key features, pricing, and benefits of both Capsule CRM and Clay to guide you in selecting the ideal CRM for your organization. We'll also introduce folk which is a popular alternative.

What is Capsule CRM?

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that helps users manage customer relationships, track sales pipelines, and organize tasks and communications efficiently.

Key features of Capsule CRM

• Contact enrichment: Clay CRM automatically pulls in additional data from various sources such as social media, public databases, and professional networks to provide more detailed contact profiles.
• Automation: The platform allows users to automate repetitive tasks such as sending emails, updating contact information, and managing follow-ups, helping streamline workflow.
• Customizable workflows: Users can set up workflows that align with their business processes, allowing for the management of leads, customers, and tasks within the platform.
• Integrations: Clay CRM supports integrations with other tools and applications, allowing users to consolidate data from multiple sources and manage it in one place.
  

What is Clay?

Clay is a customer relationship management tool designed to help users organize and manage contact information and interactions, with a focus on automation and contact enrichment.

Key features of Clay

• Contact management: The platform allows users to organize and manage contacts by consolidating information in one place. Users can add custom fields, notes, and tags to categorize and track interactions with each contact, making it easier to manage customer relationships.
• Automation: Clay CRM includes automation tools that handle repetitive tasks like contact updates and reminders, helping users streamline their communication and workflow processes.
• Search and filtering: The platform provides advanced search and filtering functionality, allowing users to segment their contact database based on various criteria such as engagement history, tags, or custom fields.
• Real-time updates: The platform provides real-time updates for contact records and tasks, ensuring that users have the latest information on their contacts and projects at all times.

Capsule CRM vs. Clay: Feature Comparison

Let's break down the key features of two CRM software solutions and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.

1. Sales pipeline management

Capsule CRM's pipeline management feature offers a user-friendly approach to tracking sales opportunities through various stages. You can view the sales pipeline as a list, kanban, or dashboard. This flexibility allows sales teams to visualize their sales process clearly and efficiently, making it easier to identify bottlenecks and prioritize tasks.
Clay CRM does not offer a dedicated pipeline management feature as part of its core functionality. While users can organize contacts and tasks, the platform lacks specific tools for tracking deals or leads through stages in a sales pipeline. This limitation might require users to rely on external tools or manual processes to manage their sales activities effectively. For businesses that prioritize structured sales processes and need a visual representation of their sales journey, Capsule CRM stands out as the more robust option. However, if your focus is more on contact organization without the need for detailed pipeline tracking, Clay CRM might still meet your basic needs.

2. Easy of use

Capsule CRM is designed with simplicity in mind, offering an intuitive interface that allows users to quickly navigate and manage their contacts and sales pipelines. Clay CRM, is also easy to use with an interface that is reminiscent of a rolodex.

3. Contact enrichment

Capsule CRM's contact enrichment feature automatically enhances contact and company records by pulling in relevant data, such as job titles, email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, and company information. However, it is only available on specific premium plans. Clay CRM offers a contact enrichment feature that automatically gathers additional information about contacts from various sources, such as social media profiles, public databases, and professional networks. This feature helps users build more comprehensive profiles by pulling in data like job titles, company information, and social links.

4. Outreach

Capsule CRM's outreach solution focuses on simplifying email marketing and automating follow-ups through integration with its email tool, Transpond. This allows users to schedule and automate email campaigns to streamline outreach efforts. Clay CRM does not have a dedicated outreach feature specifically designed for managing customer communication, such as email marketing or mass outreach. However, users can track interactions with contacts and set up tasks or reminders for individual follow-ups.

5. Automation

Capsule CRM offers automation features that help streamline sales and customer relationship processes, including automating repetitive tasks like follow-ups and data updates. Its workflow automation allows users to set up triggers for actions based on changes in sales pipelines or customer status. Clay CRM includes automation features that allow users to streamline repetitive tasks, such as updating contact information, sending follow-up reminders, or managing workflow tasks. These automations can be set up to trigger actions based on certain conditions, such as time delays.

6. Integration

Capsule CRM integrates with a variety of popular third-party applications, including productivity tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for email and calendar synchronization. It also connects with accounting software such as Xero. Clay supports integrations with various third-party tools, allowing users to connect external applications for enhanced functionality.

7. Artificial intelligence

Capsule CRM has limited AI integrations compared to more advanced platforms, focusing primarily on enhancing efficiency through basic automation. However, it supports integrations with third-party tools that offer AI functionalities. Clay CRM does not currently offer dedicated AI integration.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Capsule CRM and Clay.

Capsule CRM prices

Capsule offers a few plans once you're ready to upgrade from their free trial.

• Starter plan: Starts from $18 per user, per month.
• Growth plan: Starts from $36 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $54 per user, per month.
• Ultimate plan: Starts from $72 per user, per month.

Clay  prices

Clay has a free plan for personal use, for up to 1,000 contacts. After that premium plans are as follows on an annual subscription.

• Pro: $10 per user, per month.
• Team: $40 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: Undisclosed.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Capsule CRM and Clay

Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. There is a reason why folk is a multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system.

Key features

• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
• Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.
• Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. And assign reminders so you know exactly when to follow-up.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

Capsule CRM vs. Clay: What's the verdict?

Both Capsule CRM and Clay offer robust features tailored to different business needs. Capsule CRM shines with its comprehensive sales pipeline management and user-friendly interface, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. On the other hand, Clay excels in contact management and automation, providing a streamlined experience for users who prioritize real-time updates and enriched contact data. However, for companies that need a more personalized approach to relationship management, folk provides a flexible alternative to these traditional CRM options, blending ease of use with customization. Try folk today, free.